Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-06-18
AN OLD AGITATION REVIVED.

TIE question Of woman's dress has again
come upon the boards of public discussion.
aud some of the leading critical journals of
the country have opened their columns to
free debate of the subject. In all the CEN
tury in which the question has been dis
cussed, there has been made really no pro-
Social philosophers have been puzzled
beyond measure to account for this. For
where question is nearly all affirmative
where evils are confessed, and suggested
remedies admitted to be wise, it is reason
able to expect reform. In the matter of
woman's attire, however, there has been, if
anything, retrogression. With all their
abominable and absurd dressing of the
hair, the women of 1900 were far better
costumed, save only in the matter of cor
sets, than are those of 1887, when the re-
quirements of health, and the demands of
comfort, are taken into account.
Annie Jenness Miller, thoughtful
critic, declares women's hats of to-day to
be ugly" in shape, unbecoming to any
except youthful faces, and altogether OPP
posed 10 the ethics of art and the require
ments Of good taste She enters a strong
plea for the distribution of the weight of
the clothing evenly over the body and
limbs. She believes that the corset waist
Is about the only improvement
of the present over the costumery of
hundred years ago. This lady has in
vented new dress, which she haunts in
the face of arbitrary fashion, and defes it
to criticise it adversely-5ut fashion sim
ply ignores it. 1t is partial return to
the loose and easy costumery OF the Grecian
period, abandons bustles and corsets, and
tight-dtting garments, and dark depressing
colors
Dr. Helen Densmore, distinguished
Sgolaaa physician, hts Si7ep her approval
TO the new idea" She says in the Epoch
that it is impossible for women to retain
good health and dress as they DO. A large
percentage Of the ailments TO which they
are subject, she charges to modern cos
tuluerY. and adds, that all Ills are aggra-
waited 10y it.
But all this is old; we have heard it
these many years, and society has paid
no heed to It. Fashion defes reason and
the doctors, ana women continue to wor-
ship at its shrine and suffer on without
complaining
Professor Jaeger, of Stuttgart, has in
trodueed new system of carded wool
clothing, which admits of many reforms
without defying fashion, and ii is said that
in Germany, at least, it is becoming popu-
lar As an indication of steps in the
right direction, DR.. Densmore declares
that the riding habit, which is fashionable
as we'll as comfortable, is encroaching upon
the stiff and unyielding armor of the dress
Of every day. She says:
1t is a singular fact that ladies go to the
ridiug-Schools and in the street cars with per
feet propriety in this riding dress; no one thinks
that II looks peculiar, because il is a riding
hatSt The lady is not criticised because She
mas no hustle The draperv of her dress fits her
form closely. This TACT proves that ii fashion
would allow ladies walking costumes to be
made something like riding dress it would be
considered as tasteful and appropriate for
woman as the riding-habit has come TO be-
William Ghornley, an admitted author
ity, defends the American woman's taste
in dress, because she is sensible enough to
know that good clothing makes one feel
easy, and helps on in the social world
But Ghormley, whose business it is to de-
sign costumes for women, aud fashion their
dresses, while warmly comrending the
American woman's taste and her art in
combining eolors in dresses, declares that
there Is need for radical reforms in the
style Of garments. He condemns tight
laeing, and protests that a small waist is
no part of a perfect form. DR.. De La
Nergne, of New York, declares that
woinan's dress affects her health more than
any other influence. He speaks as one
knowing when he says that "the great
majority of cases of female weakness are
due to the eorsets without straps to high
heels, light shoes, undue compression of
the respiratory and abdominal organs, and
to the weight of the clothing unevenly
distributed. He demands that female
children be left as free in their clothing as
are boys, add that they be allowed to grow